Outdoor learning activities for kids :-)

Once we have made ourselves clear that our child would step into her formal education only at the age of five, particularly straight to Class I, the two years ahead remain crucial as she has to be taught of basic things at home and her Anganwadi. This demands a sincere effort from us to be active and  creative to keep her engaged and interested in learning.

            Some of such attempts are captured and presented to your visually here. We have made the best possible use of our living area and converted the same as her play area!

 Learning basic shapes, colours and directions: Letting the child follow instructions such as go to square, now to your right, jump to blue :)

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    Learning numbers: The traditional Paandi game (Tamil) in the path to learn numbers from 1-10 by jumping and hoping. Every time we cross, we involuntarily hop!

Days of a week: Climbing (up and down) stairs by learning days of a week in English and Tamil

Mirror Me: Following what one person does, in terms of actions and colors. It improves focus, coordination and is fun! Our daughter's favorite!

                                         Idea courtesy: Google
Learning Numbers, Colours, In and Out: Making the child learn opposites, colours, numbers, jumping in and jumping out

                                                Idea courtesy: Anganwadi booklet

(   Playing traditional righta rightu (Am I right?)

 The traditional right ah right uh where the child walks through 10 boxes drawn in a straight line with eyes closed, balancing  by judging the space. Adults enjoy this.








Snakes and Ladders: Again the traditional and well-known game is drawn on floor with good (eating, playing, sharing, greeting) and bad habits (using mobile, fighting) depicting ladder and snake respectively. Also the child learns numbers from 1 to 50 and adding numbers according to the dice rolled. we play it in group of families and have real fun.

Five in One: This picture drawn in our residence helps in learning five stuff namely Tamil alphabet (uyir ezhuthukkal) 12 in number, 12 different shapes, 12 months in Tamil and English, and reading clock. In addition giving clues to find shapes is identified to be more thrilling for our kids around. For example, adding the mirror image of this shape gives a circle (ans. semi-circle), this shape helps in kitchen (cylinder). After a point in time, designing clues is a task in itself. our daughter and every children around love this :-)

     As we begin doing such things, we end up with more and more ideas for our children. These activities are not only forms of fun learning for children, but also a stress buster for adults. I say this out of our own experience!

    Time to get on to the floor, folks :-)